Youth: Muscletown, Oklahoma

Everyone knows that the middle-aged U.S. male is in bad physical shape. But not so apparent is the poor physical fitness of the U.S. schoolchild. Last spring Oklahoma University's Football Coach Bud Wilkinson, who is the part-time director of President Kennedy's physical-fitness program, picked Muskogee, Okla. (pop. 45,000), as a pilot case, asked the city to test all its schoolchildren. Of 6,557 kids who took the three-exercise exam consisting of pull-ups, sit-ups and squat-thrusts, 3,043 flunked. Stunned by the 46.9% failure rate, Muskogee set up an all-out fitness program for its whole school system, put it into operation this fall.

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